BONUS Ice Cube Just Left
Thank you.
Guest:Cube just left.
Guest:Cube just left.
Guest:You know, we should let people know that basically you and I do this almost every time there's a guest over.
Guest:We have either a phone call or we talk on text right away, but usually just to get like immediate reactions.
Guest:So I figured let's start putting some of these on the mics.
Guest:Yeah, good idea.
Guest:You just said Cube just left.
Guest:How did it go meeting Ice Cube and having a conversation with him?
Marc:Well, I think it's funny because in all honesty, with you and I, the way it works is I do some research.
Marc:You send me a bunch of stuff that you've dug up.
Marc:I look for my angles.
Marc:You have your angles.
Marc:But it seems it's only when I have some sort of...
Marc:you know, sense of unusual panic or insecurity that we actually talk before the guest.
Marc:Before.
Marc:Before, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So, you know, like, you know, when I'm like, when I say, hold on, I'll tell people exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:what I said before this interview.
Marc:I just out of nowhere texted you, feel like a fraud going into this, but hopefully we'll get something going.
Guest:Yep, that's the signal.
Guest:It's like a bat signal with headphones.
Marc:And then you said, you want to talk about it?
Marc:I'm like, sure.
Marc:Yeah, and then...
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Um, but, but going into it though, like I told you on the phone is like, and I had this cause this is the, you know, he's been booked before.
Marc:And the last time I remember I'm going to talk to him and I had this same fear.
Marc:Like, I'm like, I don't, I don't know enough about his stuff.
Marc:All I, all I know is that I'm a little scared of the, the, the scowl I've known my entire life.
Marc:It's just a picture of his face.
Marc:I'm like, what if, but, but what was weird about this one is I got it in my head.
Marc:that he was going to ask me what my favorite songs of his was as sort of a test.
Marc:Like, what do you know about M.W.A.?
Marc:Which song you like the best?
Marc:How familiar are you with The Predator?
Marc:Like, I thought that's what was going to happen, that he was going to test me because I knew nothing.
Marc:And I remember the last time I was like cramming Ice Cube records.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like there was no way I was going to watch all those barbershop movies.
Marc:That wasn't going to happen.
Marc:So I'm like, well, I got to go to the music.
Marc:That's where it started.
Marc:Go to the music.
Marc:I know the NWAA record.
Marc:I got, I got, and I, and today, like, you know, he's coming over and after we talked, I felt a little better and I felt better about making the connection between the, uh,
Marc:The Michael Jordan deal.
Marc:What do you mean by that?
Guest:People don't know what we talked about ahead of time.
Marc:Well, no, I mean like, you know, because we were talking about, you know, Cube's trajectory into movies and into the big game.
Marc:And, you know, you brought up the 30 and 30.
Guest:The one he directed about, I think it was called like Straight Out of L.A.
Guest:or something.
Guest:It was about the L.A.
Guest:Raiders.
Guest:But it was about, it became about...
Marc:the brand marketing and about branding and about also taking ownership of your own shit.
Marc:And it seemed to me after seeing air that it was all around the same time where these guys became, you know, sort of playing the, the, the game with the record company and taking what they could do to really setting their sights on.
Marc:We could have it all.
Marc:Like there is a, there is a, an, a black entrepreneurial spirit that,
Marc:Or vision that, you know, it goes across comedy, movies, sports with these guys.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And it seems that a lot of it started with the Jordan thing.
Marc:You know, that kind of gave me a window in, though I forgot about it.
Marc:And it turns out he didn't see the movie.
Marc:So, but it came up later.
Marc:But I ended up, I have a vinyl copy of,
Marc:of his first solo record, like an original vinyl copy, you know, like on, what was it, Priority?
Marc:Whatever the record company is.
Marc:And I put it on, and I was like, holy shit, the production is so great.
Marc:Like, it's so clean, and it's so, you know, like, it just was alive, you know, more so than I would have remembered.
Marc:And, you know, we talked, so that's how I ended up getting into it with him.
Marc:And what happened?
Marc:They showed up.
Marc:It was him and two other fellas?
Marc:Him and one other dude.
Marc:And they said that another guy was going to come.
Marc:And they walk in.
Marc:And I open the door, and there's Ice Cube.
Marc:And, you know, there's...
Marc:There's just like there's people who come over like I can kind of sense like, well, I can, you know, kind of engage with this person pretty quickly that I can charm the moment, you know, disarm it pretty, pretty quickly.
Marc:And usually it happens kind of immediately.
Marc:But I open the door and like what I realized right away was like, that's not going to happen here.
Guest:Oh, wait, you mean Ice Cube won't find your cats charming?
Guest:My house, buddy.
Marc:But he was okay.
Marc:I mean, he was, as anticipated, he wasn't, you know, it's just like, you know, he's not going to entertain fools and he's not, you know, it's not like, you know, he was being Ice Cube, Ice Cube.
Marc:He was just sort of like, you know, so you're the guy.
Marc:He does business, right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:He's here to do business.
Marc:Is this what we're doing?
Marc:He's on the phone.
Marc:I'm talking to his guy.
Marc:And I'm saying like, well, he walks in.
Marc:I'm like, you guys can hang out in here.
Marc:You okay with cats?
Marc:And Cube goes, I don't, you know, that's not the question.
Marc:The question is, are they okay with me?
Marc:And I'm like, okay, what about this guy?
Marc:You want to sit in here or you want to wait in here?
Marc:He's like, I can wait outside.
Marc:My car's out.
Marc:I'm like, okay, fine.
Marc:So I, you know,
Marc:So the guy, we all walk out and the guy's, I guess, going to go sit in his car and I'm walking cube around the long way because I'm telling him that my grass is fucked up.
Marc:I'm trying to get to grow right.
Marc:And he's like, well, you got to get stepping stones over there.
Marc:I'm like, I know, I know I do.
Marc:And I didn't.
Marc:That's why it's fucked up.
Marc:And the drought fucked it up.
Marc:And he's like, I said, did you follow the water restrictions?
Marc:He's like, I think my gardener tried to.
Guest:I love him telling you that you need to get stepping stones.
Guest:All I'm thinking of is how he in Three Kings would lecture everyone about the weight of baggage because he was a baggage handler.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:First thing that's going into my head.
Guest:Oh yeah, well he knows all about stuff.
Guest:No, that's a character.
Marc:Yeah, he knew I had to get stepping stones.
Marc:But I think that's also the key to him is that
Marc:You know, he's not going to, you know, bullshit around.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like I, my, my fear was like, you know, are we going to talk?
Guest:You know, that's always your fear.
Guest:Cause you're never going to have a problem with like being able to say things.
Guest:You can say things to people.
Guest:You don't want to fill all that time, dude.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:You're always concerned that it's going to be like 20 minutes and then you, you, you, you've got nowhere else to go.
Guest:And so you're just asking these one-off questions.
Guest:I don't want to carry him.
Marc:I don't want to carry him.
Guest:But I don't know, man.
Guest:I don't think he talked to O'Shea Jr.
Guest:at all.
Guest:So what you're talking about is that we wondered why all of a sudden Cube was doing the show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you thought maybe it had to do with O'Shea.
Guest:And I said, it could be that it has nothing to do with that.
Guest:It could just be coincidence.
Guest:And it looks like it was, huh?
Guest:Yeah, I think so.
Marc:Because I told him, you know, I had him on.
Marc:And he said, oh, he's a good guy.
Marc:You know, he's got this detachment, you know.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it was sweet, though, dude.
Marc:I don't like, you know, like, I don't know if I got anything out of the ordinary.
Marc:I didn't bring up the Jew thing.
Marc:I just couldn't see how to do it, where it was going to land completely.
Marc:in a way that wouldn't shut him down.
Marc:You know, I got him like halfway open and I just wasn't, I didn't know how to do it.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Well, I mean, it's also, here's the thing.
Guest:The other problem with that, when you say the Jew thing, you mean the fact that he's been accused of saying or tweeting anti-Semitic things.
Guest:He always comes back with it and says, I'm not being anti-Semitic.
Guest:I'm talking about one person and maybe I shouldn't have used this word or that word.
Guest:But
Guest:There's definitely a tone of generalizing in them where, you know, there's something ingrained in the sense of, you know, Jews having to do with money and business and that.
Guest:And it crops up and it's, you know, there's adequate criticism out there of it.
Guest:And I think, you know, we had talked about, is there going to be a way to bring this up specifically with you being Jewish?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, you know, but, you know, in that sense, I didn't get any vibe from him.
Marc:You know, and I kind of danced around the faith thing a little bit, because I asked him if he knew who Titus was, Burgess, and we had talked about faith, you know, but it's like...
Marc:he didn't seem like the kind of guy who was going to do that.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But you know, I had to lead him to places where, you know, there's some interesting shit in this talk because like it became a process of discovery sort of for both of us, because when these guys, you know, processed of discovery when you're, when you're interviewing someone is retroactive.
Marc:So, you know, if you can put together things from their narrative, um,
Marc:that they didn't really put together before necessarily, you know, there's a sense of discovery there about themselves.
Marc:And I don't know that I've ever noticed that this clearly, but it's true that, you know, part of the thing about talking to somebody or having a conversation about somebody is when, you know, you kind of go through their life, but not sort of like, and then what happened, then what happened, but sort of like, oh, so that's what made you think that you could do this or, or so was that like attached to this?
Marc:So there is these themes in this thing.
Guest:Well, it even happened with Titus, the one we just put up today, that like you're talking with him and he got to a point where he was like, wow, I didn't expect to get here.
Guest:Like he openly verbalized that.
Guest:And I think that that's when that kind of thing happens, that's that means you've had the best type of conversation you're going to have.
Yeah.
Marc:Well, I think that guy was a little raw for some reason.
Marc:Because he was ready to go there.
Marc:I think it was for other reasons.
Marc:I think he was having some relationship issues.
Marc:I just think he was a little raw and couldn't really do the sort of... Happy face.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, I think that was just a coincidence.
Marc:But it happened with Anthony Ramos, too.
Marc:There was a moment there where he's like...
Marc:Damn, I never thought of that.
Marc:That kind of thing.
Marc:But the interesting thing about Cube, really,
Marc:And I don't know, I didn't see it in the research, but Singleton had been pestering him.
Marc:To write Friday?
Marc:No.
Marc:No to be in Boys in the Hood since he was in fucking college.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:He met Singleton when Singleton was an intern at the Arsenio Hall show, and he was there to give Arsenio Hall a piece of his mind.
Marc:For having, I don't remember which other rap group on and not having NWA on.
Marc:So he had gotten himself into the Arsenio Hall show to fucking, you know, stand down, to have words with Arsenio.
Marc:And this fucking intern's like, I got a movie for you, man.
Marc:Oh, no way.
Marc:Totally.
Marc:Totally.
Marc:It's crazy.
Guest:So that's funny because that was something we had talked about beforehand that I was saying, you know, when I first saw Boys in the Hood, I think I was 12, 13, somewhere around there.
Guest:And, you know, it's a big deal.
Guest:We saw it very early on, my friends and I. And...
Guest:It was like, yeah, this is the first movie with Ice Cube in it.
Guest:You're going to see, like, this is going to be like a real gangster on the screen.
Guest:And, you know, of course, now you know the story.
Guest:I mean, Straight Outta Compton has come out.
Guest:You know the deal.
Guest:You know who Ice Cube is.
Guest:But his authenticity was undeniable.
Marc:Oh, you're going to love the story he tells, dude.
Marc:Because it's like you don't know the story.
Marc:Like, the story is hilarious.
Marc:You know, because, you know, he still...
Marc:with NWA, and he meets this kid who's like, I got a movie for you.
Marc:And the kid... But he's a kid himself, right?
Marc:He's what, late teens?
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, you know, he heard the guy out, and, you know, and the guy was, you know, must have been engaging.
Marc:But then there's these series of coincidences that play this part in his life.
Marc:Like, you know, the reason why, you know, do you know where...
Marc:where he started rapping.
Marc:Tell me what it was.
Marc:He was just in typing class.
Marc:Cause he, cause I don't know, he got stuck in typing class, which turned out to be pretty important thing for him to have a skill.
Marc:And he turned out it was good at it.
Marc:And there was this other kid in typing class who was like, do you ever write raps?
Marc:And that's where it started with this other kid who said was, you know, he didn't have it.
Marc:You know, like he was ripping off other people.
Marc:And they started doing like, you know, he said it was like at that time, it was like the kid who played guitar at school was the cool kid.
Marc:And they had this thing, a magic that no one else was doing.
Marc:So they were rapping for other kids.
Marc:And then they started rapping.
Marc:Like...
Marc:But it all started in fucking typing class.
Marc:And he said that there are these two things, like he got into a different middle school because Hughes closed down.
Marc:He went to a different middle school and they stuck him in some sort of film history class.
Marc:And he's like, what is this shit?
Marc:Middle school and you had to watch Citizen Kane.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:So he basically hangs the sort of future of his life on these moments like, you know, Singleton at the Arsenio Hall show, this typing class where he started to write down raps.
Marc:And this fucking film history class where he learned that there was an art to what good movies were, right?
Marc:And he said that he was hanging out at Singleton's house, watching Scorsese movies and Kubrick movies, and just hanging out.
Marc:This is before they shot Boys in the Hood.
Marc:This is right after he got cast, and he's newly... He might have just dropped his first solo record.
Marc:I can't... I don't know.
Marc:But he said...
Marc:That's when Singleton told him to start writing.
Marc:And he had no idea what that even meant.
Marc:And this is before they shot anything.
Marc:Right, right, right.
Marc:And he said, that night, I went to the Mac store, I bought a computer, I got final draft, and I started writing this piece of shit that he wrote.
Marc:He wrote two scripts.
Marc:But Singleton helped him all the way through.
Guest:Well, that's kind of letting people in here on my process as I'm listening to you is that...
Guest:I rely on these conversations we have, whether it's sometimes we just have time to do it over text, but other times we get on the call.
Guest:I rely on these to kind of give the interview some shape if it needs it, because I know going in, I haven't listened to this thing.
Guest:We don't have a live feed or anything.
Guest:I'm going to listen to it after we have this conversation.
Guest:And I rely on...
Guest:what stuck out in your brain in the moment to kind of create a foundation for the thing so that when I'm listening to it, I know here's what I'm circling around.
Guest:I'm circling around this thing that stuck out for Mark.
Guest:And can I give that some more shape or less shape?
Guest:You know, and that's that becomes my process.
Guest:And this is kind of going to be your process now as listeners.
Guest:You're listening to this.
Guest:We're going to put this up before you hear the Ice Cube interview.
Guest:So this is kind of you're now in our process with us.
Marc:He, it was, it's pretty lean, dude.
Marc:You know, it's like a, it's a pretty tight hour five, but it's, it's pretty, you know, it kind of unfolds.
Marc:He's a very deliberate guy in the way he talks.
Marc:You know, he talked a little bit about Eazy-E in a way that was clearly nostalgic and referential.
Marc:And, and we, but there were these beats that,
Marc:about this discovery, you know, about self-ownership, about, there's a real good riff he goes on about the difference between making records to make hits, which he called being in the game, and then stopping the, giving a fuck about making hits and just making stuff for your people, and that's where he, you know, sort of, that kind of grows into the conversation about taking ownership of yourself, and just, you know, it's a different but bigger game, ultimately.
Marc:And then we finally get to the basketball thing, which I'd done a little research on my own.
Marc:Cause I don't think he brought it up that, you know, apparently the NBA is a little, a little dickish about this thing.
Marc:Oh, I bet.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So I brought that up.
Marc:Like, you know, I, like I, I did the, the pretend thing, you know, I'm like, so like, so where are you at with this, uh, with the NBA and ESPN with this shit, man?
Marc:You know, like, like I know what I'm talking about.
Marc:Right.
Yeah.
Marc:But I knew enough.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, you know, and then him talking about what they're doing with that thing.
Marc:Because, like, I don't watch basketball, but I know that three-on-three has got to be much more exciting in a lot of ways than watching whole teams.
Guest:Yeah, where it's streetball, essentially.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:So...
Marc:But he's very excited about it.
Marc:But this is like the third turn in his life.
Marc:You know, where he's self-ownership, music, self-ownership, movies, and now this sports thing.
Marc:So there is a through line.
Marc:And I think he was pleasantly surprised, you know.
Marc:Like, you know, a lot of times I expect to, you know, turn off the mics and people are like, wow, how long was that?
Marc:That was great.
Marc:And, you know, but, you know, I'm like, thanks.
Marc:And I turn them off and he's like, all right, that was good.
Marc:It was like...
Marc:Kind of like in passing, like, you know, like almost like to himself.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, I don't think he knew what this was or how it was going to go.
Marc:But, and I don't know what he did with Stern if he, if he really got, did he tell stories?
Guest:Yeah, but they were, you know, it was more.
Guest:This was, first of all, like I told you, this was maybe eight years ago, nine years ago that I heard that the Stern interview happened with him.
Guest:It was right around the time the movie was released, straight out of Compton.
Guest:And it was mostly stories about the NWA because, like, Howard was guiding him through the conversation based on having seen the movie.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:No, we didn't do that because, like, I, you know, I think we got a full life arc on this one in the way it would work.
Marc:You know, we talked about, you know,
Marc:you know, his grandkid a little bit, and, you know, I think that this was the way to do it, you know, to take it for granted that everyone knew the NWA story, and then get these little peppered-in things here and there about, you know, Eazy-E here and there, and then kind of moving through his process and the music and...
Marc:I talked a little bit about the nature of the music and what keeps them optimistic.
Marc:Look, I didn't know what to expect, but it was certainly not hard.
Guest:Well, cool.
Guest:I'm excited for it.
Guest:The thing I get to do now is I get to go have my first crack at it, which is always fun.
Marc:Well, it was funny, though, because I was trying to share this story.
Marc:Remember the famous Red Fox story?
Marc:Nine people?
Marc:I ain't working for nine fucking people.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:You know?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And the joke is they kick into the theme.
Marc:The theme, yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I told that story.
Marc:I got no laugh from him.
Marc:And he goes, nine people.
Marc:That's rough.
Yeah.
Guest:But that's funny because I guarantee for that guy, he probably never encountered that in his life.
Guest:Like if you think about the fact that he came up as like, you know.
Marc:But then I explained the fucking joke to him.
Marc:I'm like, but it's sort of funny like that the orchestra had to decide what to do.
Marc:And he's like, they're working, man.
Marc:They're working.
Marc:It's not going to, joke's not going to land.
Guest:There's nothing I can do.
Guest:No, but it's so funny that you say that.
Guest:It hadn't occurred to me until right now that that is a guy who has never had to... I mean, I'm sure he's played shitty gigs before, but he's never had to play a death gig with nobody in the audience, even when he was just a guy getting on the mic for the first time at some club.
Guest:Yeah, that's true.
Marc:But there's nine people just involved in the process.
Marc:Already there.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Exactly.
Guest:I mean he came with two people today.
Guest:Well, I should say to everybody that this is you're talking to me in a way that you usually do after these.
Guest:Maybe one of these days we'll catch you at a time where it's after a struggle because they don't happen a lot anymore.
Guest:But sometimes, you know, there's a, you know, an interview happens and then we talk about it afterwards and you're like, man, that was tough.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I'm just now I'm concerned.
Marc:I don't know how.
Marc:How my dialect held up during this one.
Guest:That's always an adventure for me.
Guest:I don't know how street I got.
Guest:How long before Black Mark shows up?
Guest:That's always... Oh God, 18 minutes.
Guest:There he is.
Guest:Black Mark.
Guest:When was the last time I did Black Mark?
Guest:Oh, there was one.
Guest:Wait, there was one that I had to write to you, and I was like, oh, boy.
Guest:This is full on.
Guest:It might have been Cat Williams.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I think it was Cat Williams.
Guest:I don't think I did it too bad this time.
Guest:It's funny, though, because it happens with everybody.
Guest:You know, it happens with, you know, Jews.
Guest:It happens with Italians.
Guest:Like, yeah, I love like when you're talking to an Italian guy, you're all of a sudden like, yeah, hey, well, you know what?
Guest:Hey, hey.
Yeah.
Marc:I think the Anthony Ramos one is going to be a problem.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:They'll do the Brooklyn, Puerto Rican.
Guest:oh man there's there's definitely like literature on this about you know mirroring voice and what it means but i think for for your case it's just a matter of connecting oh yeah and it doesn't it happens involuntarily yeah i'm like when it happens i'm i in my head i make note of it i'm like maybe you stopped out a little
Guest:When?
Guest:When you start saying cats a bunch?
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Whenever that happens.
Guest:You turn into Gene Hackman from the Royal Tenenbaums.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, it's interesting, though.
Marc:Anthony Ramos and Ice Cube, both of their parents, well, one of them, Cube's dad still lives in the house he grew up in.
Marc:Oh, no kidding.
Marc:And Anthony's mother still lives in the house he grew up in, in the projects in Brooklyn.
Mm-hmm.
Marc:And they've both offered them.
Marc:They both said, you don't have to live here.
Marc:But they do.
Marc:And it's interesting.
Marc:And it makes total fucking sense.
Marc:At this point in your life, why would you leave the community that is your community?
Marc:To go where?
Marc:For something you didn't do.
Marc:Well, that was more with Cube.
Marc:But with Anthony, it's just like she kind of wants to eventually go to Florida.
Marc:But, you know, all her friends are there.
Marc:And her bodega and everything.
Marc:You know, it's like...
Marc:You know, and they're famous, too.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, like Cube said, his dad's like, he's like, you know, the guy.
Guest:It's interesting.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, for everybody listening, this will be posted next week.
Guest:Next week, you will hear the full Ice Cube interview.
Guest:It was a long time coming.
Guest:It was 2017 when we first had him booked and he canceled.
Guest:So, yeah, glad we finally got this one.
Guest:So relieved, dude.
Guest:What, I put myself through these things sometimes, before these things.
Guest:Crazy.
Marc:So which is your favorite track?
Guest:That didn't happen, did it?
Guest:It did not.
Guest:He did not quiz you?
Guest:Okay, good.
Guest:All right, buddy.
Guest:Okay, talk to you later.